If you're a) in the midsouth, and b) one of my longer-term readers, you've
probably already guessed at this week's topic. The weather's been really
wet and a bit colder than usual, so it's time for me to do my annual
February preview. College baseball's a bit odd, of course, because almost
all of the important non-conference games take place before everybody really
gets ready (I suppose basketball's really the same way, but work with me
here). Nonetheless, a lot of good ball gets played early, so let's take
a look at the highlights. As usual, I'm going to ignore the perennial
matchups. I also can't guarantee that these games will actually matter;
last year's call of title implications for the February 1 Miami-Tennessee
matchup looks kind of silly now.

January 31-February 2
Arizona State at Long Beach State
Stanford at Cal State Fullerton

I know I said I was going to ignore the perennials, but the Stanford-CSUF
game looks extremely likely to actually have title implications. If I were
foolhardy enough to put together a preseason top 5, both teams would be in
it (Fullerton would actually be well-served by a lengthier schedule; they
just don't have enough innings to keep the amount of quality pitching
talent they have in right now busy), and with the perennial seeding problems
Western teams have, this could make a big difference.

Meanwhile, Long Beach has put together a
schedule
for the ages this year. Time will tell if it pays off, but there's
really not a weak team on their schedule.

February 7-9
Baylor at Arizona
Florida State at Stanford
Long Beach State at Southern California

Baylor-Arizona is one of those interesting matchups where both teams had
the potential to be better than they were last year, and one of them could
really make a move for national prominence on this weekend. Florida
State-Stanford has turned into a really fun annual event, and the LBSU
roller coaster continues.

The name has changed, but this is still one of the best tournaments around --
back to six teams this year, with less of a SWC grudge match air about it,
but none of these six teams would be shocking in Omaha. Meanwhile, which USA
team will show up -- the one that gives regional powers fits, or the one that
disappears every time they leave the Southeast?

February 21-23
Penn State at Arizona State
Clemson at Auburn
Southern California at Baylor
East Carolina at Central Florida
Houston at Louisiana State
Stanford at Texas

Things get serious this weekend; this may be the best overall weekend of the
year. Some of these are intriguing, in that a team could shape their season
here to a large extent -- the ECU-UCF loser, for example, probably isn't
going anywhere, but the winner might be.

Neither of these are quite as impressive as they have been in some other
years, but there should still be some excellent matchups here, and some
of the others could be more interesting by this point, as most of the
teams will have a dozen or so games in before this.

Hang in there, folks, better days are coming.

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